Happily Ever After: Definitive Edition
by Amras Felagund
Summary: All that the Turners wanted was to live a happy life and raise a family together... Prelude to Fairly OddParents Next! Rated K-plus for brief violence and language.


(**DISCLAIMER:** Seriously, if I owned the _Fairly OddParents_, or _Danny Phantom_, do you really think I'd be writing here? I don't own anything except the stuff I totally made up.)

_**HAPPILY EVER AFTER:  
Definitive Edition**__**  
**_**by Amras Felagund**

July 15th 2011… Marmel Church, in Dimmsdale, California…

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, to bear witness to the union of these two young people, who bond themselves together, sharing life, love, and all the trials that will come before them. Though none can foretell the future, we all wish for great happiness and bounty for this couple. May the Father of all creation, in His great wisdom, bestow His blessing upon them for all time."

The priest faced the groom,

"Timothy Tiberius Turner, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, to remain faithful to her for as long as you both shall live?"

In the eternal second before his answer, Tim glanced at the pew where his family sat. His father Robert. His mother Kelly. His little sister Tabby…

They had supported him through all the hardships of courtship. They had may not have always been there for him when he needed them — considering that he had often been left alone with a truly atrocious babysitter at least once a week as a child — but they loved him dearly, and he them.

His friends… AJ, Elmer, Sanjay, Rudy, Tootie, Dwight… Chester, his best man… Chester's bride, Sammy…

They were his family, too.

The world to him.

As a child, he was the ringleader of the group of what was, at the time, five strong. Chester and AJ were his earliest and best friends, though he met Elmer and Sanjay later; Tim — then Timmy — would often joke that they were his "backup friends". In those days, they would often try to pull off one of the spectacularly dangerous bits of foolishness that are the stock-in-trade of high-spirited youngsters everywhere, more often than not landing in some sort of trouble with their parents.

AJ… born into the wealth of the Ibrahim family, but willing to convene with the middle class, which his parents actually encouraged in contrast to Dimmsdale's other wealthy families. He could have gone to a private school. His parents sent him to Dimmsdale Elementary, so he would know the middle class. There, he met Tim and Chester.

Elmer… the Boyle kid, with a large boil on his face that he had named Bob. He, too, met Tim at Dimmsdale Elementary, though he was already friends with Sanjay when Tim first asked them to play his game of Timmy-Ball in the schoolyard.

Sanjay… from a middle-class Indian family, his mother remarried to a drill sergeant when Sanjay was five. Additionally, he had a stepbrother from his stepfather's previous marriage. At fourteen, he stopped pretending (not that he did very well) and confessed to Tim that he was gay for him. Tim let him down gently, saying he was not interested in other boys. Their relationship remained cold for a year. Sanjay returned, accepting Tim as a friend only.

Rudy… family life was not kind to the boy. His mother dying in childbirth had led to a long-term estrangement of the boy from his father. After moving to Dimmsdale, his harsh treatment by the teacher for arriving in the middle of the school year earned him Tim's sympathy. And friendship. In time, Rudy fell in love with Tootie, and they plan to marry in a few months' time.

Tootie… Tim would never have believed that she would be such a close friend if someone told him ten years ago. She had had an obsessive crush on him at the time, though the fact that she was the little sister of the babysitter that so tormented Tim repulsed him. In their teens, he dated her for a couple weeks, but ultimately decided that a platonic relationship was best for the two of them. In time, she moved on to Rudy, and sparks flew.

Chester… he had come from the lowest of low… his father, Bucky McBadbat, was called by critics "the worst baseball player ever", and ousted from the major league. Destitute, he was unable to afford health care for his wife, who died giving birth to Chester. Tim and Chester met in kindergarten, and had never looked back.

Sammy… she was an interesting story. She was actually the cousin of Trixie Tang, a popular girl whom Tim had had a crush on as a child. Trixie's family, as it transpired, was named Tang on both sides. Samantha's mother, Elizabeth, had fallen in love with a middle-class man, Samuel Hope, and was disowned when she became pregnant with Sammy. Tim had often seen Sammy in school, but had not spoken to her until the fifth grade.

Dwight… Tim had met him in a juvenile correction center when both were ten. However, Tim's recollection of what juvenile correction center it was is hazy at best, with specific details blurred. His parents did not recall sending him to any such place, though they admitted that they honestly did not keep as attentive an eye on him back then, so anything was possible. After their release, Tim and Dwight reacquainted two years later, when Dwight's family moved to Dimmsdale.

And at that same juvenile correction facility, he met her…

His angel.

Tim faced his bride, smiled…

And gazed at the gift they had given each other.

Their unborn child.

Tim and his bride-to-be had not been chaste in their approach to a romantic relationship, though they decided that perhaps it was best to wed before its birth.

Smiling, he said,

"I do."

With a short nod, the priest turned to the bride,

"Molly Michelle Ravenwood, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, to remain faithful to him for as long as you both shall live?"

Molly… like AJ, she was born to the white-collar family, though like Tim, she was often the subject of neglect from her mother Mary-Anne and her father Jefferson. Meeting Tim and Dwight at the same place at the same time, her abrasive personality initially grated against the two boys. As did her aversion to being touched. In the end, though, they parted on good terms; Tim was able to high-five her without her getting snippy about touching other people. Years later, at fourteen, the two of them reunited, first as friends…

Then as lovers.

And now…

Molly bowed her head, almost looking to be emitting a faint light of her own, so light was her skin. With a half-smirk and a cocked eyebrow over her blue eye,

"You know I do."

Sarisfied, the priest then addressed those in attendance,

"If there is anyone here who has any reason why these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace."

There was no sound of any objections from anywhere in the cathedral.

Facing the bride and bridegroom again, the priest addressed the page beside him,

"Let there now be the giving and receiving of a gold ring, symbolizing oneness and unbreakable faith to one another for all time."

The page - whom Timmy recognized as his Aunt Gertrude's grandson Jerry, and his cousin once removed - walked up, presenting a cushion with twin rings of gold glittering on it. Taking one as one with Molly, Timmy slid the band of gold onto one of Molly's pale-white fingers as she did the same with his ring.

Smiling, the priest said,

"Then, by the power vested in me, with God as my witness, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Lifting the veil herself, Molly stood before Tim, skin as white as the dress she wore save for the faintest of pink on her cheeks. No one but Tim was close enough to notice.

Which suited the new Mrs. Turner just fine. Just as he was one of the few aware of her heterochromia — her left eye was blue, but her right was violet; she hid her right eye with her hair most of the time — he would be the only one to see the rosy tinge under her eyes.

Molly stepped boldly towards Tim and pressed her lips to his. Tim's eyes widened initially — even now, her forwardness shocked him — but eventually eyes widened in shock gave way to eyes closed in enjoyment. The world around them vanished, time slowed to nothing, and all that existed were them.

Timothy & Molly Turner.

The knot was tied.

In their sweet oblivion, neither noticed the rousing applause that they are receiving, or the flashes of light of the numberless cameras set around the place...

Or the three Fairies — one pink, one green, and the last purple — floating overhead, smiling at the newlyweds. Vanishing in a puff of pink smoke.

Tim & Molly broke the kiss, and gazed deeply into each other's eyes.

And Tim felt a deeper connection to Molly — his love, his life, his _wife_ — than ever he did before.

He read her soul in her eyes, and in his own eyes his wasa book for her own perusal.

And he knew.

She wanted their baby to look like him.

And they knew.

It will.

* * *

November 23rd 2011…10:38 PM… Dimmsdale Hospital…

Slightly nauseated at the sight of blood, Tim focused on her face. Shiny with sweat and tears, her raven hair mussed about, exposing her purple right eye.

"It's a girl," said Dr. Laurence, holding the slightly bloody, slightly gray baby girl. Though she wasn't crying, she seemed to be moving a little, indicating that she was still alive.

Laurence cut the umbilical cord, quickly but gently cleaned the small girl with a cloth, and held the baby girl out to Molly, who gave the baby a small kiss on the head, before Laurence then put the baby in an NICU — placing the small girl on an incubator to raise her body temperature, and putting a small breather on the infant's mouth to aid her breathing — and then returned to assisting Molly.

_Come on, Molly_, Tim chanted in his head; he'd managed to extricate his sore hand from Molly's and took to urging his wife on mentally. _Keep it up. I know you can. You're strong; I know you are. You can do it. I know you can. I believe in you._

And then, at 10:41 - three minutes later - Molly slumped back against the pillow on the back of her bed; Tim let out the breath he didn't know he was holding; and Dr. Laurence held a second damp infant in his hands, this one letting out a feeble wail.

"It's a boy," he said, clipping the umbilical cord and cleaning the boy, then allowing Molly a kiss to her son.

"A boy?" Molly asked as Laurence put him in the NICU along with his twin sister.

_A boy? _And_ a girl?_ Tim thought. He had _fraternal twins_ for children? That was an idea, while it crossed his mind in the instant he discovered that he was the father of twins, that seemed somewhat unlikely at the time.

But now, looking into the NICU's that were set up in B-226, there could be no denying it.

"They were born about a month early," said Laurence, "But they are surprisingly healthy for premature births. A couple of hours in the NICU and they should be fine. Would the proud parents like to look at them?"

"Not yet," said Molly. "I think I need to rest a little." And she sounded it, too; no sooner did she say that than she closed her eyes, laid back, and slipped into slumber.

"I'm gonna stay with her," said Tim; now that his children were born — and he could rightfully call himself a father — he didn't want to be anywhere else right now but near to them.

Also, in spite of the excitement of the day, he felt surprisingly tired now. Perhaps the adrenaline was leaving him.

Seating himself in the chair nearest the NICU's holding his children, Timothy Turner drifted off into sleep, his heart and soul swelling with love.

_**---**_

Molly woke up, feeling lighter than she'd felt in months. She still felt somewhat sore from the birth, but at least she didn't feel tired anymore.

_Birth..._

Molly sat up bolt upright. The clock read 12:51.

"Oh, you're awake," said Laurence, looking over the now-empty NICU's. A black panic seized Molly; what had happened to the twins?

"Don't worry," said Laurence with a smirk, indicating a double-width cradle that had been wheeled in her sleep. "They're fine now. We transferred them into that just a minute ago. I was just about to wake you up, actually."

Relief…sweet, sweet relief filled Molly…

_Is this what it's like to be a mother? _Molly thought. _I've never felt this strongly for anyone, or anything, except Timmy. But… I guess… it's 'cause we _made _our children. Mother's instinct._

"Mrgh…" said Timmy from his slumber in the chair. Rubbing his eyes, he sat up slowly. "How are they?"

"They've made a surprisingly fast recovery, Mr. Turner," said Laurence. "Would you two like to see them, and name them?"

That got Molly's attention; they had two sets of two names — one boy, one girl — in the event that they had two boys or two girls. Now, they had a boy and a girl. What did they do now?

"Yeah, we'll do that," said Timmy.

Laurence smiled and wheeled the cradle toward them; Molly looked into the cradle at her twin children; she had barely seen them because of how blurry things looked because of her tears from the pain.

She gasped.

She'd seen baby pictures of Timmy, and the boy — apart from his jet-black hair and his nose which apparently came from her genes — looked like a dead ringer for him.

The girl had inherited a more moderate mix of her genes and Timmy's; though she did inherit Timmy's hair, nose, and — she noticed — his lips as well, the girl's facial structure was more like a Ravenwood than a Turner.

Gingerly picking up the boy, Molly cradled him in her arms as Timmy did the same with their daughter.

"What do we name them?" Molly asked Timmy.

"I know what you mean; we already have two first names and two middle names for each," Timmy replied. "We can take our absolute favorite first and middle names for these gifts," Timmy turned his gaze on his daughter, and gasped. "Molly!" he whispered excitedly.

"I know," Molly said, feeling almost ecstatic; "He's waking up, too."

The baby boy slowly rubbed his eyes with his pudgy hands, and slowly — almost pensively — opened them.

Molly gasped; it was like looking into Timmy's eyes.

"She has…my eyes," said Timmy, in awe, not taking his eyes off of his daughter's.

"Thomas Michael."

"What?" Timmy looked at Molly.

"His name. It's Thomas Michael Turner. But for short…" She grinned. "We can call him Tommy."

Timmy gaped for a moment, then smiled. "I like it. But that's sorta inspired by the fact that you 'almost' remembered my name when we were ten, right?"

"Mm-hmm," Molly nodded. "What name are you thinking of for her?"

He looked back at their daughter with a loving smile. "I think she looks like a Tamara Sophia Turner. Tammy for short."

"I love it," Molly said. It was a beautiful name for their beautiful daughter.

"Almost as much as me?" Timmy asked.

Molly smirked. "Sure, why not?"

Timmy & Molly chuckled, but only for a second.

"I'm terribly sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Turner," said Laurence, "But we're going to have to see the twins now. We have to take down their names, their weight, their length, the whole nine yards." And he took Tammy first, put her in the cradle, then the boy - Molly resisted a little; she was already in love with her children, and was torn at being parted even a few hours from them - and then rode the cradle away out of B-226.

"I suppose we're gonna be staying overnight, huh?" Molly asked; she wanted to be as close as possible to the twins.

Evidently, so did Timmy, because he said smilingly, "Of course, love. So will everyone else, if the nurses allow them." Then his eyes widened and he smiled more broadly, "Oh, by the way, Molly..."

Then he kissed her on the lips, but before he did, he uttered the three words that completed her day:

"Happy birthday, Molly."

* * *

Tim drove the car from Dimmsdale Hospital on November 30, Molly sitting beside him in the passenger seat, and Tommy and Tammy — both asleep — strapped into baby carriers in the back seats. It had taken an hour or so to work through everything — collecting their birth certificates, signing paperwork, stuff like that — and they'd made a rather startling discovery in the twins' crib just as they were taking them out, a surprise that lay in the back seat between the twins:

A Garfield™ doll in tye-dye colors of neon-green and hot-pink and bright-purple, wearing a bonnet and bib — which was emblazoned with the phrase: 'It's a BOTH!' The pink 'It's' was written in loopy cursive, as was the purple 'a', while the 'BOTH!' was neon-green and looked like more of an untidy scrawl. It reminded Tim of the one he'd had when _he_ was born: baby-blue, with 'It's a Boy!' on its bib.

The drive home was rather uneventful, until they got onto their block.

Tim slammed the brakes.

"What the—…" he & Molly muttered.

There was a moving van next to the next-door's house — where the Dinklebergs lived when Tim was a kid.

New neighbors.

But that wasn't what caught Tim's eye.

It was the shape that was phasing in and out of the moving truck, carrying everything from a television to a lamp to a _couch_ with seemingly no effort, passing through the walls of the van and the house without breaking either.

"…"

"…"

"What the heck kind of neighbors _are_ these?" Tim & Trixie asked each other at the same time.

Tim pulled his car into the driveway, picked up the baby carrier holding Tommy, and carried it inside, setting it on the couch. Molly did the same with Tammy, setting her beside her twin.

Then they stood outside and stared in awe at the spectacle unfolding next door.

Then it stopped.

And three ordinary people walked out of the house.

A slightly muscular man with black hair who looked to be Tim's senior by at least four years, wearing a plain white-and-red shirt and jeans.

A slim, pretty woman about her husband's age with shoulder-length black hair and amethyst eyes, with an almost entirely black ensemble.

And their toddling daughter, holding onto her mother's arm, wearing black like her mother. A spitting image, too.

Tim & Molly's hearts gave collective skips.

"Danny Phantom…?" Tim whispered.

"Sam…?" Molly whispered.

The husband seemed to hear this, because he looked across the way at his new neighbors, gave his wife a glance, and both turned to look (their daughter kept looking around at their surroundings curiously).

"Neighbors," said Dan. "Better say 'hello'."

Dan walked over, ignoring his wife's wary look, and held his hand out to Tim & Molly.

"Hello, I'm Daniel Fenton, also known as Danny Phantom…" He cracked a slightly cynical smile. "But I'm sure you already knew that."

Tim was still in shock for several moments, but common courtesy prevailed as he cleared his head (by vigorously shaking it) and stretched his hand out to take Dan's.

"Ahem! Sorry. Don't meet many celebrities," Tim said, shaking hands, bridging the gap that had formerly separated their two worlds. "Timothy Turner. Nice to meet you, Mr. Fenton."

"No. Call me Danny, or Dan," said the Phantom, shuddering slightly. "I'm not one for formalities," he added as he shook Molly's hand.

Dan's wife walked up, her and Dan's daughter trailing slightly behind.

"I see these aren't a pair of rabid screaming fans demanding to kiss Dan's d—… er, feet," she corrected, seeing her daughter out of the corner of her eyes.

"Sam," Molly said, a hand on her hip, "can the censorship. She won't remember it in a few hours, anyway."

Dan's wife — _Sam?_ Tim thought — looked momentarily stunned. "How do you know my—…? Wait," Sam said, squinting at Molly.

"…Molly?" she said after a moment.

Molly smirked, "Took you long enough, cuz."

Tim's heart leapt into his throat. "Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa, back up!" he said, facing his wife in awe and shock. "How come it never came up that you're cousins with the wife of _Danny freakin_' _Phantom?!_"

Molly's smirking reply was simple and short. "'Cause you never asked."

Tim's mood shot up several notches, from 'elation' to 'sheer nirvana'.

His wife.

Was cousin.

To Sam Manson.

The wife.

Of Danny.

Freakin'.

Phantom.

Savior.

Of the.

World.

_They even_ sound_ a lot alike_, Tim thought.

"You always were the only cousin I could stand babysitting, Molly," Sam said, smiling gently, and an amicability to her voice that was missing before. "You were really individual, like me."

"Her mom and my mom were sisters," Molly explained to Tim.

Then Sam cleared her throat. "Ahem. Sorry. Name's Samantha Fenton. Call me Sam." Holding out her hand, she shook Molly's, then Tim's.

"It's an honor, Mrs. Fenton," Tim said.

"Sam, please," she said, before adding, "Call me 'Sammy', and you'll taste ectoplasm." There was no jocularity to her tone. She was deadly serious.

Tim chuckled nervously in spite of himself.

Turning to her daughter — Tim was surprised — Sam's morbid demeanor changed entirely. Her eyes sparkled now, and her voice lacked its dreading tone.

"Come on, Danni," she said brightly, tugging her daughter's hand. "Say hi to our new neighbors."

Danni walked slowly forward, mumbling something that sounded like 'hi'.

"This is Danni, our daughter," Dan said, picking up his daughter and kissing her nose, before rubbing his own against hers. "And she looks just like her beautiful mother, yes, she does!"

Danni giggled.

Sam's eye twitched at her daughter _giggling_.

"What's wrong, Sam?" Molly asked.

"Giggling…too…girly," Sam muttered.

Changing subject, Tim said nervously, "Uhh, you weren't serious about the whole 'taste ectoplasm' thing, were you?" Stealing a glance into Dan's house, Tim saw that the Fenton house looked like everything had been settled in, as though they had lived there for weeks already.

Sam chuckled, "Not really; I haven't had Ghost powers since I was pregnant with Danni, but if you call me 'Sammy'…" Sam grimaced as the name left her lips, "it _will_ hurt, let me tell you." She smirked in an almost evil way.

"Yeah, I'm surprised Tucker got Val's bun in the oven after he called you that," Dan remarked, causing Sam to laugh, and Danni to go 'huh?'.

Tim knew who Tucker and 'Val' were. He wasn't dumb; he'd read Wikipedia's articles on the Fentons and their associates a number of times.

"So, may I ask why you relocated to Dimmsdale, home to Escalator-Land?" Molly asked curiously.

Dan seemed a little startled by this question.

"Uhh, it's—…"

"We wanted a change of scenery; Amity Park's become Ecto-American Central since the Disasteroid," Sam cut in. "It was gettin' kinda weird back there."

"That," Dan continued, "And Paulina was getting kinda unbearable."

The four adults laughed, and Danni looked puzzled.

"Y'know, it's gonna be weird talking to you two," Dan said. "We only just met, and yet you two probably know everything about us."

"Well, not me so much," Molly corrected, taking Tim's hand. "Tim's the Ecto-Head around here."

With a start, Tim turned back to the house.

The twins. They'd left them unattended for the past several minutes.

Talk about bad parenting skills.

Molly looked in Tim's eyes, and he saw her longing to return to them as well.

"Sorry to cut the greetings short, Dan," Tim said, walking to the door with Molly, "We gotta check on the kids."

"'Kids'?" Sam said incredulously. "Aren't you two a little young to have a family already?"

"Do we look like we can't handle it?" Tim asked. "Besides, you two can look if you want."

"Sure," said Dan. "Let's go, Danni," putting his daughter on his shoulders as he & Sam walked to their new next-door neighbors' house.

"Nice wallpaper," Dan said, looking around at the green wallpaper.

"A bit bright, though," Sam added.

There they were, on the couch, just where he & Molly left them.

Dan's eyes widened as he spotted them. "Exactly how old are they?"

Tim found that he couldn't look back at Dan; the faces of his twin children were all that existed for him now that he saw them again.

"A week old," Molly answered for him. "We only just took them home today."

"He looks just like you," Sam said, peering down at Tommy.

"Well, not just like me," Tim said; he had to have explained this to a lot of people before. "He has Molly's hair."

"What are their names?" Dan asked.

"The boy is Thomas Michael Turner," Tim explained, gazing unendingly at his children, "and my girl is Tamara Sophia Turner."

"Tommy and Tammy, huh?"

"We've met your sister," Molly said suddenly.

"What?" said Tim and Dan simultaneously.

_When did we meet his _—_ wait!_ Tim thought.

"When?" Dan asked.

"She was our Psychology teacher at DimCom," Tim explained; how couldn't he have seen it before? Was his short attention span really _that_ short? He'd read the news report of Jasmine Fenton and Frederich Isak Showenhower, aka Freakshow, getting married; it was big news, the sister of Danny Phantom marrying one of his old archenemies. How could he have forgotten?

Maybe he wasn't as much of an Ecto-Head as he thought.

Dan's face shined with comprehension, "Oh yeah!" he smirked slyly. "She _did_ mention you two, now that I think about it. You're the lovebirds, aren't you?"

Strangely, Dan & Sam seemed to snicker at this; Danni, meanwhile, seemed fascinated by Tommy and Tammy in their carriers.

"What's so funny?" asked Tim.

"Just something from the high school years," Sam explained. "Before we started dating, everyone seemed to know we _would_ one day. They said we were 'together', 'lovebirds', and everything in between…"

"And we always denied it," Dan added, putting Danni on the ground. "And _after_ we started going out, Paulina — an old crush — started calling Sam more…colorful things."

Then something very strange happened; Sam stared intently at Dan — who was standing slightly ahead of her, so he couldn't see her at all — and then he whipped around to face her. He looked a little startled about something.

"She _what_?" he asked.

"What was…?" _What was that?_ Tim thought.

Dan looked confused, then slapped his forehead.

"Argh, I'm already taking it for granted that you know more about our lives than _we_ do," he muttered. "Sorry about that. After me & Sam started…you know…" He made an awkward gesture with his arms, hoping that the Turners would understand without him having to say something adult in front of the three young kids in the room.

But Tim & Molly understood. "Yeah?"

"…me & Sam developed this psychic connection," Dan explained. "No idea how or why — probably had something to do with my Ghost powers — but it helps when we want a private conversation."

"And what was that?" Tim asked, "If you don't mind saying, that is?"

"You really wanna know?" Dan asked.

Tim nodded.

"Paulina — who's so in love with my Ghost half, it isn't funny — named her daughter Daniela," he mumbled.

Tim thought he understood; it meant that Paulina hadn't quite gotten over this obsession it sounded like she had with Danny Phantom.

"Not to be rude or anything," Sam said, heading to the door, "But we've been in this house longer than our own. Besides," she added with a smirk, "If we learned everything about you guys now, it wouldn't be fun knowing you."

"No problem there," Tim said.

"See you later," Molly said. "Hope to catch up after so long, Sam!"

"Same here, Molly!" Sam replied.

"Bye, Danni!" Tim waved to the Phantom's daughter.

"Bye-bye!" she said back, waving with a bright smile, her blue eyes sparkling.

"I'm going…going…Ghost!" said Dan as he dramatically closed the door behind him and his family.

A beat.

Tim & Molly embraced.

"A superhero for a next-door neighbor and cousin-in-law…" Tim whispered into Molly's hair. "What next?"

"Don't jinx it," Tim could hear Molly's smirk in her voice.

They pulled away slightly, walked around the coffee table and sat in the couch and took their twins out of the carriers and cradled them, Tammy in Tim's arms, and Tommy in Molly's.

Tammy snuggled into her father's chest, and Tommy's hand rested on Molly's.

And then the new parents stared into each other's eyes.

"I love you, new mommy," Tim breathed.

"I love you too, new daddy," came the soft reply.

And they kissed, and everything was perfect.

_**---**_

The odds of a GodChild in this day and age keeping his or her Fairy GodParents for more than a year are very long, especially when you consider how long children can keep secrets — or rather, _can't_ keep secrets. Therefore, it's natural to concede that a GodChild keeping his Fairies for a year or longer — or in the case of Tim Turner, nine years, losing them only with the advent of adulthood on his 18th birthday — is an extremely rare occurrence, bordering on happening once in a blue moon.

However, the odds of that same GodChild having a girlfriend or boyfriend who is also a GodChild are too long to even be considered remotely probable. Pigs flying over Hell as it freezes over is considered far more plausible.

Timothy Tiberius Turner had had Cosmo & Wanda Fairywinkle as Fairy GodParents for so long — and his future bride, Molly Michelle Ravenwood, had had Swizzle Fizzle McDizzle almost the same breadth of time — that the Fairy dust Cosmo, Wanda, and Swizzle exuded during those collective years as their Fairy GodParents had become engrained in their very genetic code.

Not giving them a touch of magical power in any way, though it did have an impact on their children, even though nothing was apparent yet.

Even now, a burgeoning psychic link is developing between the Turner twins, a mental link closer than any twins — human or Fairy — in the history of the Universe.

_**---**_

Dan, Sam, and Danni walked through the door into their house, and into the living room.

_How's everything look, Sam?_ Dan asked, looking around the room. He'd tried to arrange it the way it was back at their old house, just down the street from FentonWorks.

Danni seemed happy; immediately, she ran over to her ectoplasm-green building blocks, and started building.

_Fine._ Sam sounded distracted.

_What is it, Sam?_ Danny asked.

Sam stared into Dan's eyes; he saw the slight frown creasing her forehead.

_Are you sure about this, Danny?_ Sam asked. _I mean, Von Strangle acted like a you-know-what before. What makes you think that this might be more important than Ghosts?_

_Sam, these Unwish guys _—_ according to Jorgen, anyway _—_ have some sort of grudge against the Turners, especially Tim_, Dan replied. _The war doesn't sound like it's going so good for Fairy World; they won't be able to keep the Unwishes far from human civilization forever. Sooner or later, they'll break through, and it sounds like the Turners are gonna be the first targets. And if I can protect someone from something outside his control _—_ Ghost or no Ghost _—_ I'll do it. That's what heroes do._

Sam, to Dan's surprise, smiled.

_And that's one of the things I love about you: putting other's needs ahead of your own_, she said. She felt the side of his head, resting her small white hand on a small bald streak, too small to be seen from anywhere but less than a foot away. _Is that where…?_

_Yeah_, Dan put his hand over hers; her hand was warm. He felt her wedding band. _Studwell put the chip in there. My Ghost Sense should be able to pick up magical creatures now. Hopefully, the Unwishes qualify as 'magical'_, he added grimly. _Either way, fighting them'll be different than fighting Ghosts. Probably more like fighting Frea_—Fred_ (I'm still not used to him being my brother-in-law) _—_ when he had that Reality Gauntlet. Remember?_

_How could I forget? _Sam replied.

_And if they _do_ come creepin' around here, please be careful,_ Sam said as she pressed her lips to Dan's.

_Don't worry, love; I will be_, Dan said to her as he returned it, his hands in her raven hair.

Danni, meanwhile, had spelled her name with the blocks.

The Unwishes _would_ come for the Turners. Dan knew it. It wasn't a thought; it was a feeling. It was inevitable. If the Leader really detested Tim & Molly as much as Jorgen told Danny, they were in real trouble if his armies broke through Fairy World's ranks. And, to be honest — he wouldn't tell Sam this, or his parents, or Jazz, or Tim, or anyone — he was almost looking _forward_ to it on an instinctive, gut level. Because when they finally got here, whether it was within a year, ten years, or fifty…

It would be one _hell_ of a great fight.

* * *

Just one month after the Turner twins were born, Rudy & Tootie gave birth to a baby boy, whom Tootie named Rudy. When asked, she replied that it was in memory of her lost brother (who had disappeared after her elder sister Vicky framed him one time too many by hiding porn mags under his bed). Even so, his birth certificate read 'Rudy Reed Jr.'.

Two months after that, Dan rushed to the hospital with Tim and family in tow. Upon arrival, Tim found out why.

Danny's elder sister, Jazz, had given birth to a baby girl. She was named Anastasia Lydia Showenhower by her father, but had since received the nickname 'Stacy' from her mother. Stacy looked much like her mother, but with her father's skin tone and eye color.

Tim & Molly graduated from college, along with everyone else they knew who attended that post-high school torture session. Tim's job led him to work as a junior detective in the Dimmsdale Police Department, while Molly opened up got a job at a local _Hot Topic_, where she quickly rose through the ranks.

Chester went on to bring irony to his last name and become one of the greatest baseball players of the age.

Sanjay ran for Congress and became one of the two Senators for California, the other being Elmer.

Sammy decided to simply be a homemaker, taking care of her & Chester's daughter Jessie while Chester traveled around the country and made home-runs look easy.

AJ became a professor of Quantum Physics at Dimmsdale Community College.

Tim & Molly tried to work out their job schedules so that one was home while the other was working. However, because of the nature of Tim & Molly's jobs, that did not always happen, and so they sometimes had to leave Tommy and Tammy either with Tim's parents, with Molly's father, with Rudy & Tootie, or with Sammy. However, Sammy would sometimes take Jessie along to follow Chester in his baseball exploits, and was not always available to babysit.

It turned out that Tammy Turner was nearsighted and needed contact lenses. When she found them irritating, Tim & Molly decided to buy her glasses instead.

Tootie was visiting at the time.

"Wait," she'd said, bouncing the kindergarten Rudy on her leg. "Try these first, Tammy." She removed her own glasses, and handed them to Tammy.

Tammy put them on. Blinking a few times, she smiled.

"They wowk! They wowk pewfectwy!" she had cried, hugging Tootie's leg. "T'ank you, Aunt Tootie!"

Tootie ruffled her goddaughter's hair. "Don't mention it, sweetie."

"You're so nice, Mom," said Rudy Jr. with a smile.

Tim could remember looking into Molly's eyes at that moment, and she smiled at him, and he could tell she was thinking the same thing as he was.

_We could've gotten them ourselves_, he thought. _But at least the contact lenses won't go to waste; Tootie can have them._

As the years passed, Tommy and Tammy's bond only seemed to grow deeper. Rarely seen apart, their kindergarten teacher put in a word to their grade-school principal to keep them in the same class (after all, since their grades on any given day were always best when they were in the same class and participating in the same activities, it would reflect well on the school's educational facilities if both their grades were at their highest). And at home, Tim & Molly, expecting the rambunctious twins to argue over who got the top bunk and who won at _Great Fray Fighters Rumble_, were startled at how quietly they seemed to settle things. Tim knew Molly so well that she often need not talk to communicate her thoughts to him, but this was almost…curious. Especially since they were not troublemakers of any sort.

Tommy and Tammy had reached a stage in the development of their telepathy where it was easier than speaking aloud. As such, they were able to bicker amongst themselves while they were eating, brushing their teeth, or during the rough-and-tumble that their father had been up to at that age.

Around the same time, in summer of 2019, two more scions of the Fenton family tree made their presence in the living world. Danny & Sam gave birth to William Daniel Fenton, or 'Billy', with bright-violet eyes so like his mother's, and — strangely — snow-white hair. Danny attested in later months that Billy's Ghost form's hair was an inky-black.

That winter, Frederich & Jazz gave birth to Jack Showenhower, a little boy with a mop of messy black hair and his mother's aquamarine eyes.

Tim & Molly deliberately bought pink clothes for Tommy. Initially he protested, but conceded when Tim spoke of how he wore it all the time as a kid. Eventually, Tommy would seem upset when he _didn't_ have pink clothes to wear.

_Like father, like son_, Tim thought smilingly as he sorted through that day's mail, just a few months' shy of the twins' 11th birthday, and Molly's 31st, the sounds of Tommy and Tammy playing outside wafting in through the back door.

Unaware that that day would awaken old and suppressed memories, reunite him with old friends, and bring his family into an empyreal conflict.

***

"…Uhh, Skoll?"

"What is it, Chank?"

"I have some lingering uncertainty that it was a sound notion of yours to act on your assumption that our renowned Emperor desired for us to acquire this orbitting sphere of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen."

"…Hey, ZID? You understand a word he just said?"

"_No shirt, no shoes, no service!"_ ZID's screeching robotic — not to mention unabashedly jubilant — exclamation grated at the hearing organs of the two Zyiyqans present. Even the tech-savvy Chank found he could not erase the glitches in ZID's systems, no matter how thorough his efforts. Attempts to completely reboot his CPU proved fruitless; the virus just kept coming back.

"What did I tell ya, Chank? Now again, in plain Zyiyqan."

"You may have made a mistake, Skoll. Just because your father told you to go conquer a planet _on the other edge of the galaxy_—…"

"Well, there ya go. Soon, we'll be back on our feet, and all those splorches—…" Chank winced at Skoll's foul mouth. "…—at the Academy will be sorry they ever laughed at me!"

"Your father doesn't _care_ what happens to you, Skoll. For Kria's sake, your own younger sister has conquered more planets in the name of the Zyiyqan Empire than you! Your. Younger. Sister! I may be your inferior in rank, but eventually, I'll have to stand up to your actions that only border on the edge of reason, and say—…"

"SHUT UP, CHANK!" Skoll shouted, whipping around and slapping Chank across the face, his tail swishing irately.

"We're gonna conquer this planet, like it or not. I'm the leader here, and before you know it, they'll be parading about my great deeds back on Kria Zyiyq before ya know it!"

"_End of first sequence and fade to black!"_ cheered ZID.

Sighing, Chank folded his feathered arms around himself, feeling a sudden chill as Skoll adjusted the trajectory of their HG-42 cruiser into the blue planet's atmosphere. He could not tell why, but he…well, he'd always had bad feelings before missions. At Dlaarb, at Xrob, at the capital city of the planet Azgoth, he was plagued by a foreboding that this mission would be more embarrassing than the last.

And in each case, Chank knew exactly what they were coming to face, what exactly Skoll was rushing into without thinking, and was frustrated that Skoll ignored his warnings.

But this was different.

Chank was outright terrified. There was something different about this planet, but he couldn't place it. It was this unknown variable that frightened Chank.

He loved Skoll as though they had both sprung from the same womb, but Skoll was so headstrong and egotistical sometimes, often to the detriment of the missions they were sent on.

But this was one for the books. Skoll's father, Emperor Lednergmrux, had ordered Skoll, Chank, and ZID to conquer a planet somewhere in Sector AD-896.

"Rather close to Yugopotamia, the Sunless World," His Majesty had said. "Within a trillion miles, I would say, by the Archaic Measurements. I know nothing else of the planet; just go. Get out of my sight!"

And now, here they were.

Sighing in resignation, Chank read the computer print-out, listing their designated arrival.

Some place called…

Dimmsdale, California.

* * *

"Mo_ther_…"

"Work with me here, Vanie!"

Vanessa winced at her mother's pet name for her, but kept her mouth shut. She _hated_ being called 'Vanie' like hating being called 'Vanie' was going out of style, but honestly, her mother was somewhat frightening when she got angry.

Vanessa winced again as her mother pulled her chocolate-colored hair through an elastic holder. She hated ponytails, too. Why restrict free movement?

"May I ask _why_ you're doing this to me _now_, Mother?" Vanessa ventured.

_Mom normally ever does this when she's taking me to these really fancy restaurants_, Vanessa thought.

"I _totally_ thought you'd never ask!" Vanessa's mother said in that grating Valley Girl accent that always made Vanessa cringe. Vanessa Star recalled a time when she'd thought her mother Veronica was only putting that accent on to annoy her. Almost ten years later, Vanessa could rightfully say that it was her mother's natural accent.

And she thanked whatever higher power there was that she did not inherit it. Even so, she was surprised how _dark_ her voice sounded. She scarcely sounded like she was related to her own mother. Indeed, her voice reminded herself a lot of a purple-haired girl character from some old TV show about a stupid alien invader.

"The letter came," Veronica Star told her daughter. "He wants us to come. Now."

Vanessa heart sank, but she hid it well.

_That explains why the TVs are unplugged_, she thought. _And the lamps, too. And the microwave. And the refrigerator. And the fans, even though it's 90 frickin' degrees outside!_

"Really?" she asked, feigning excitement.

"Totally!"

Cringe. Left eye twitch.

"And once we get there, 'everything is gonna be _totally_ swell'! That's what the letter said… except for the 'totally' part."

"Great, Mom," Vanessa said flatly. "I just need to go to the bathroom."

"Be right down, Vanie!" Wince. "We're leaving for Dimmsdale in a few minutes. He said, 'Now!'."

Vanessa trudged up the stairs to the bathroom, opened the door, and slammed it as hard as she could without giving her mother reason to assume something was wrong.

She didn't really need to use the bathroom. She just wanted some time to let some steam out without her mother's overbearing, Big Brother-esque presence keeping her from being herself.

She growled, her fists clenching her fingernails into her palms.

"Mother…" she hissed to herself. "Why are you so obsessed with the man who is my father?"

Vanessa was quite the opposite of her somewhat air-headed mother. She was dark and brooding, and — so she thought — had a better perception of How Things Are Meant To Be than her mother. As far as she was concerned (reading between the lines of what her mother had told her), her father's feelings for her mother were most likely just from the neck down. However, Vanessa did not regret the one night that her parents had together.

Because that was how she was conceived.

Still, she didn't see how her mother could be so blasé about the impact she could have on a happy family. Unless, her mother was right for a change and her father's wife was as horrid as she made her out to be.

_Why are you so hung up on feelings that may not even be_ there_, Mother?_ she thought. _That letter could just be so he can tell you in person that everything between him and you is off._

Vanessa stood before the mirror and regarded contemptfully the scowling girl with chocolate-brown hair in a ponytail and cerulean eyes.

_And how about letting me keep some of my individuality, Mother? I would appreciate it if you didn't try to mold me into a reflection of what you looked like in middle school! I'm my own person!_

She pulled out the elastic in her hair, and felt her hair cascade down her back. Vanessa smiled at her reflection now.

Vanessa did not think of herself as conceited, but she did think of herself as looking quite lovely. She loved the sheen of her hair, and the fact that it was slightly mussy in the front. She could only assume that she had gotten it from her father, because her mother was blonde. She could also assume that, but for her lip shape, which she'd inherited from her mother, that she looked a lot like her father, because her eyes, while blue, were not the same shade as her mother's, and her nose was not pointed like her mother's.

"VANIE! You done up there?!"

Vanessa cringed; she'd forgotten that they were leaving in a few minutes. Hastily flushing the toilet and dampening her hands in the sink — so her mother would think that she had done business in the bathroom other than blowing off steam — Vanessa trudged out the door, walked down the stairs, and faced her mother.

"What about the rest of the stuff?" she asked.

"The movers'll handle it," Veronica smiled, pointing out the window. There, Vanessa saw at least three moving vans waiting to load the contents of the soon-to-be-vacated Star household.

Vanessa trudged out the front door and into the passenger's seat of the Star car, buckling in.

Veronica slid into the driver's seat, closed and locked the door, and turned on the ignition. Giving her daughter a kiss on the cheek, Veronica smiled as she pulled out of the driveway.

"Next stop, Dimmsdale!" Veronica smiled.

* * *

The first day of summer vacation.

_So, what did you find, Tommy?_ Tammy asked her younger twin brother through their telepathic bond. A mystery and a boon to the siblings, it meant that they could have full-on shouting matches within earshot of their parents — or guardians like Aunt Sammy, who was off in Philadelphia watching Uncle Chester play the Phillies, or Aunt Sam, their mom's cousin — and not get into an inch of trouble.

Tommy turned to his sister with a smile, his black hair hanging messily over his eyes. He was a rather excitable and street-smart boy, marginally less book-smart than his sister, and his impulsivity tended to land him in a few scrapes that only his sister could extricate him from. However, he was in his heart of hearts a gentle, sensitive, and surprisingly intelligent lad; Uncle Chester would sometimes joke that he didn't inherit the "Turner cheese-brain gene".

_Dad told me he buried something out here when he was ten_, he told her. _But he couldn't remember what it was, only that he thought it was important._

_So, you wanna dig it up?_ Tammy asked, beginning to catch a little smile herself; though not as impulsive as her brother, it was not like she actively avoided having fun when there was fun to be had. She was the brains of the outfit, and as such, her social life was slightly less laudable than Tommy's was. Her Uncle Chester often said that she was a wiz kid on par with Uncle AJ; she could finish tests twice as fast as the rest of the students in her class; even her own brother, even when she was feeding him the answers through their telepathic link. The Turner daughter was also a fine mediator, able to understand both sides of an argument — though her blunt responses meant that she could sometimes come across as insensitive. Could not be further from the truth. Despite her cool demeanor, she could be easily tempted towards impulse decisions. Such as now.

_Sure!_ Tommy said.

_Where did he say he buried it?_ Tammy asked.

_Right by that bush_, he said, pointing out the flowery bush under the tree in the back of their yard. Tammy nodded at the spot, before walking to the tool shed built into the back of the house.

_Think it could be comic books?_ Tommy asked her eagerly. _Comics that his parents thought were too cool and violent for him to read, and so he buried them so that they wouldn't find out he had 'em?_

Tammy returned from the tool shed with a slightly rusted shovel. And a smirk.

_That's what we're gonna find out, bro_, she said.

After about ten minutes of digging, the two slightly sweating twins — taking turns with the shovel — finally hit something with a small *THUNK*.

"Hmm?" Tammy muttered aloud, stepping into the hole, handing the shovel to Tommy (who stuck it in the ground a few feet away) and brushing some dirt away with her bare hands.

She came upon a faded and slightly rusted lunch box, broadcasting a television show called _Jonny Hunt_.

Tammy's smile reached her ears. So did Tommy's.

_We found it, Tommy!_ she exclaimed as she turned to face her brother.

_Let's show it to Dad; he'll be so proud of us_, Tommy added.

Tammy ran past Tommy, clutching the Jonny Hunt box to her chest.

_Wait up, Tams!_ he shouted after her as he followed, wondering just how she could run faster than he did when she was still a few inches shorter than him.

He stood next to her as she called out to their dad, looking through the bills.

"Hey, Daddy!" Tammy said, holding out the _Jonny Hunt_ lunchbox. "What's this?"

_**---**_

Tim turned to the sound of his daughter's sweet voice, and saw her and her brother standing by the door to the backyard. In Tammy's hands, was…

Tim smiled as the memories flooded back into his head. He knelt down before them.

"Hey!" he took the box gently from Tammy. "I remember this. It's my time capsule!"

Tim had buried it when he was ten years old, but could not for the life of him recall what he'd put in it. Figuring he'd remember it quicker if he looked inside before he left for work, he opened it.

An old TV guide. A picture of a scowling redheaded teenage girl crossed out with red marker. Other scraps of paper and photos.

There.

That one at the bottom.

That was what Tim was looking for. He didn't know how, but he knew this was the crux of the time capsule to begin with.

Pulling it out, Tim examined the picture.

It was himself, looking teary-eyed about…something. On the table next to him, was…

Tim furrowed his brow.

The fish bowl.

Two perfectly normal goldfish.

Tim smiled as he recalled those fish. They had been his friends and confidantes when even Chester and AJ had turned from him. They never talked back, but Tim supposed it was that old saying: Confession is good for the soul. And their life span — eight years, close to nine — was something he'd not heard of before or since getting them. Strangely, they'd only had one baby, and that was within two years of buying them. It died around the same time its parents did.

"Ah well," Tim muttered, smiling as he put the picture in his breast pocket. "Time to go to work."

Just as Tim made a quick mental note to buy his children a pair of goldfish of their own, he noticed a flash of metal out the window.

_Just in time_, he thought. _Molly has her reservations about these new inventions, but hey. Sammy's outta town, Mom and Dad are in Bora Bora with Tabby, Molly's dad and mom are at marriage counseling, Danny's at work, Sam's got her hands full with _her_ kids, Molly's working, too, and so am _I_ in a few minutes. 'Sides, service is cheap; only $5 an hour._

Tim stepped to the door, opening it. "And time for _your_ babysitter."

_**---**_

Tommy and Tammy froze at the sight of the metal monster that hovered through the door.

The V-800, the latest service offered by the _Precious Gift from Above Babysitting Service_. Green torso. Orange-red wires resembling hair in a ponytail on its head. Pink glowing robot-eyes. Feminine attitude.

The next generation of 'Icky'.

"_Hi, Mr. Turner,"_ it droned in something approximating the exact tone of a teenage girl; somehow, its voice made Tommy and Tammy think of Aunt Tootie. _"I'm here to babysit the little targets…I mean, the precious gifts from above. Ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-ha."_

Tommy and Tammy both broke out into a cold sweat, giving each other a wary look.

_Am I crazy to have a bad feeling about this?_ Tommy said to Tammy.

_I thought _I_ was the only one_, Tammy replied.

This was the first time they saw this…thing, and already their first impressions were screaming for them to run up the steps and bolt shut their bedroom door. Preferably while they were _inside_ the room.

But rather than risk letting this thing out of their sight, they hid behind their father's legs, giving each one a death-grip.

Their father seemed puzzled at their behavior, and put a finger to his chin, "Hmm…There's something about this that's familiar, but I…"

His suspicious demeanor was shattered by the buzz of his watch-phone; it displayed the message: "Reminder to self: Get to work, you lazy bum! — Tim".

"Whoops! Gotta go. I'm gonna be late!" he smiled as he walked to the door, then saw his children hanging onto his legs.

"Bye, Tammy! Bye, Tommy!" Shaking each leg, each kid landed with a bound in front of the V-800.

The V-800 turned to face the man of the house.

"_Have a memorable day, Mr. Turner!"_ it intoned in that teenage robot voice.

With a smile, their dad closed and locked the door.

No time wasted, the V-800 deployed twin flamethrowers, a chainsaw, a buzz-saw, a taser, and a spinning corkscrew.

_Okay_, Tommy said. _Make that a _super_-bad feeling!!_

_Run!_ Tammy told Tommy.

Both ran to the window as their father pulled out of the driveway.

"NO!" they screamed, tears streaming down their cheeks. "DON'T LEAVE! TAKE US WITH YOU!"

_**---**_

Unseen by the Turner twins or the V-800, a fish bowl appeared on the table in the corner.

One had pink eyes. The other, green.

Both had crowns floating over their heads.

And human faces.

"Like father, like son," the pink-eyed fish said to the green-eyed one.

"Tell me about it!" the green-eyed one said cheerily.

The pink-eyed fish gave her companion a slightly pitiful glance. Sure, she had been married to him 9915 years now, but he could be a little oblivious to more sensitive issues.

Of course, even _he_ could not be oblivious to the reason they were in the Turner household for the first time in years.

_RING! RING! RING!_

The pink-eyed fish's cell phone began ringing.

"Hello?" she answered it with her fin.

"_Mom, I'm at the McBadbats' hotel in Philly. I'm about to appear to them and explain the situation."_

"Good job, sport," she smiled. "And good luck. We're at our old GodChild's house, and we're about to tell his kids about the War."

"_Good luck, Mom."_

"Be sure to wait for the Memory Revision Department to restore all memories to all former GodChildren still alive. The War is coming to Earth; it's important for those who had GodParents during the rise of Unwished Wishes to know what's going on."

"_Okay. So I wait to start until Mrs. McBadbat starts going, 'What? What's going on?'"_

The pink-eyed fish let out a warbling laugh.

"Well, don't wait too long after that, Poof. Good-bye, honey."

"_Bye, Mom. I love you!"_

"Love you too."

_Click! Beep-beep-beep…_

The pink-eyed fish's expression became serious. All business.

"Let's go, sweetie," she said to her emerald-eyed companion.

_POOF!_

_**---**_

Tommy and Tammy were cowering the corner in the shadow of the V-800 as it loomed towards them, its many weapons raised, undoubtedly to inflict unimaginable torture on the twins…

When it went limp, its pink eyes dimming to black, and its hulky form crashed to the floor with a deafening CRASH. Pictures dislodged by the deactivation fell to the floor, strewing glass along the floor.

Tommy and Tammy felt no relief; only confusion, and fear.

_What's it doing?_ Tommy asked. _Is it trying to trick us?_

_I don't know_, Tammy replied.

_I'm gonna find out_, Tommy said, getting up and boldly stepping towards the robotic babysitter.

_Be careful, Tommy; it could be a trap_, Tammy warned him.

Tommy nodded, and stepped forward, kicking the robot lightly.

It fell onto its back with an even louder CRASH. Whatever pictures weren't knocked over or off the walls did fall now.

But that was the clincher.

_Well, if it's playing deactivated_, Tommy shrugged his shoulders as he faced Tammy, _It's the best acting job I've seen._

Tammy sighed, walking up next to her brother.

"But why did it deactivate?" she asked aloud.

A Magic 9-Ball dropped from the ceiling.

Tommy and Tammy jumped back.

There was no hole in the ceiling!

Where did this come from?

It split open, pink smoke spilling out and filling the room…

Before coalescing into a ball, and exploding outwards.

"Hey, Tommy and Tammy!" came a duet of voices from within. When it cleared…

Floating there were two people, each barely two feet tall.

The woman had swirly pink hair, eyes of the same color, a yellow t-shirt, and black pants and shoes.

The man had mess lime-green hair, lime-green eyes, a white long-sleeve shirt, a black tie, and black pants and shoes.

Both had floating crowns, buzzy fly-like wings, and wands in their hands.

The green-haired man floated forward.

"I'm Cosmo!" he cheered.

"And I'm Wanda!" his companion said as she floated forward.

"And we're…" They both floated back, and a large stage appeared where the coffee table was; it had lights and sparklers, and a big sign that read 'FAIRY GODPARENTS'.

"…your Fairy GodParents!"

_No. Way_, Tommy said, stunned.

_I'll say_, Tammy replied, likewise.

* * *

Danni Fenton flew over the skyline of Dimmsdale in Ghost form. With summer vacation having just started, she decided to take a little break from her father's training and use her powers for more…luxurious purposes.

She was not ignorant of her father's heroism when he was a teenager; how could she be? Her father was the savior of the world. It would be virtually impossible to keep a tidbit like that hidden from even the densest or most ignorant of individuals for very long.

But still, Ghost attacks were far and few between; even with Ecto-American population on the rise across the country, as more and more Ghosts began acquiring citizenship — even _re_-acquiring it, in the case of citizens of the United States that had since passed on — the crime rate in Ecto-American sectors was remarkably low. Danni's life was far different from the life it sounded like her father had led.

So why the hard training sessions three days a week?

"To keep your powers in check," her father would say to that question, before conspicuously changing the subject.

But Danni was hardly like her namesake: a "cousin" of her father's who was killed on the line of duty. Dani was spunky and cheerful, and it sounded like childish pranks were not beneath her. Taking a leaf from her mother's book, Danni was fiercely independent and individualistic. While she appreciated her father's training, she did have to question it. It wasn't like there was a _war _coming or something…

A chill like nothing Danni had ever felt shot through her.

It was her Ghost Sense, which her father had told her was an instinct that warned when a Ghost was near. A whisp of blue smoke would emerge from her mouth, and she would shiver for a few seconds. She'd felt it just prior to the occasional Ghost attack, or when she passed an Ecto-American student in school.

This one was for the books.

It felt like she'd been dunked into a tub of ice-cold water, and her breath seized in her chest — even though she did not need to breathe as a Ghost. Danni swore she saw ice beginning to form on her hazmat suit.

_This Ghost must be…really powerful_, Danni thought, then mentally kicked herself for that mental understatement. _Who am I kidding? This Ghost is _really_ powerful. Probably more powerful than Dad. Where _is_ this dork, anyway?_

Danni found him within two seconds.

It _had_ to be him.

Honestly, how many non-Ghosts or Ecto-Americans floated on the edge of a tenement skyscraper, wearing a black robe that covered every inch of his body, with holes cut out of the back for glowing, cobalt-blue angel wings?

* * *

In the _DimmSkies One_, Danny had just finished his paperwork and was about to clock in for the day, when…

A whisp of pink smoke emerged from his mouth. A slight chill passed down his spine.

Danny's blood curdled. Either it was an emissary from Fairy World, or…

_God, no_, Danny thought. _Not now. Not today, of all days. Danni's flying around town today._

In a literal flash, Fenton became Phantom and phased through the wall.

* * *

Danni tentatively landed behind this Grim Reaper knock-off. He didn't budge an inch.

"Hey pal," she called out to him, maintaining a battle pose, keeping her arms crossed slightly in front of her, bracing herself in case he decided to strike. "What brings you to Dimmsdale?" In spite of herself, she tried to sound polite, should he take offense to her first two words.

He didn't so much as twitch. He could have been a statue.

"Okay, buddy," she said, stepping towards him. The chills became stronger as she approached. He was taller than she thought; as she edged closer, she estimated him at being almost seven feet tall.

She feigned a smile, to cover her creeping fear. "Okay, buddy. You're honestly starting to creep me out, so if you'll just come with me…"

She reached out to grab his arm.

It happened in a flash.

She saw first a flash of blue, than of green, and before she knew it, she was on the ground ten feet away. She felt a familiar presence, one her Ghost Sense had long since registered as benign and non-threatening.

She looked up.

Her father.

Danni never saw her father in full battle mode. She'd seen him having gone Ghost, and she'd seen old family films of him in battles. But she never saw him so incensed.

His eyes were blazing green, and he seemed almost to be flickering with ectoplasmic fire.

"You can't stay away from my family long, can you, murderer?" he snarled.

The Grim Reaper guy got up from the ectoplasmic blast that knocked him from his feet and faced Danni's father. Flaming green eyes flared under the hood.

"It _has_ been a long time, hasn't it, Fenton?" Danni shuddered in spite of herself; that voice was just so…cold, and hateful.

"Fifteen years, actually," Danny noted hostilely. "And you came back way too soon, for the good of my family."

Danny faced his daughter, and the rage on his face vanished, and his face flooded with love and relief.

"Danni…" he said. "Go home to Mom. You can't beat this guy." Danni wasn't about to argue with that. "Tell her that they've broken through, and that they're coming."

Danni couldn't make heads or tails of this.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, floating up to him.

"Don't worry," Danny said, suddenly embracing his daughter tightly. "_She'll_ understand."

Danni, startled, returned the hug.

Her father looked into her glowing green eyes, and she suddenly felt cold…and it wasn't from the chills of the Grim Reaper guy. "If I don't come back…I love you, Danni."

"I love you too, Dad." Danni's eyes stung, and she wanted to cry.

"Now go, fast!" Danny told her.

Danni flew home as fast as she could.

And didn't look back.

She did not want him to see her tears.

* * *

"_You'll never separate us, Ghost!__" __Danny and Dani shouted in unison._

"_Really? Then how about _this_!__"__ shouted the dark Halfa, flinging blue ectoplasmic goo from his fingertips. Caught off guard, Danny was slammed into the wall. Danny strained against it, but though he had five years' experience as a Halfa, he couldn't break through it. He could only watch as the dark Halfa raised his hand and fired a steady Ghost Ray at Dani, who set up a Ghost Shield with both hands. In his heart of hearts, Danny did not want the Ghost Shield to endure._

_He wanted _Dani_ to endure._

Please don't crack under pressure, Dani_, he thought. The dark Halfa must have heard his thoughts, because the Ghost Ray suddenly flared brighter and grew thicker. Dani did not begin to crack under pressure._

_The Ghost Shield did._

_Eventually, the pressure of the Ghost Ray got the better of Dani Phantom as her Ghost Shield shattered and — Danny clenched his eyes shut again — the dark Halfa's azure Ray completely engulfed her, a scream of shock and pain emanating from where Dani was standing._

_Dani__'s scream__ cut off almost instantly._

_When the light against his eyelids cleared, Danny refused to open his eyes. He refused to accept the inevitable. He refused to accept that Dani was__…_

"_Pathetic,__"__ the dark Halfa's voice said._

_Anxious to see what had become of his cousin, yet fearful at the same time, Danny slowly opened his eyes._

_There was a puddle of green ectoplasmic blood on the ground where Dani was standing less than a minute ago._

_She was gone._

* * *

Danny turned to face Anti-Timothy again.

"I noticed you didn't even _try_ to vaporize my daughter," Danny growled.

"It is just as well," Anti-Timothy said from under his hood. "By War's end, she will either be assimilated into my Ghostly form, killed, or by my side."

"Like _Hell_ she will!" Danny snapped. "Danni would never side with a monster like you!"

"Temper, temper, Fenton," said the Nazgûl knock-off as he lowered his hood.

It was a vastly different sight to Danny than the last time his hood fell. When last he saw beneath the hood, it was simply a blackened brain with glowing-blue creases.

Now, Anti-Timothy seemed to have a _form_ under his spectral cloak now. Possibly a side effect of having assimilated hundreds of the Ghosts Danny had ever fought.

His face looked very similar to Tim's, but somehow stolid and hardened, with a pair of fangs resting on his lower lips. His skin was palest green, his hair wild and white and grown down to the middle of his back. His eyes glowed a piercing emerald hue, the slits of his pupils evident even at Danny's distance of five paces.

"I learned how to control my emotions years ago, Fenton," he continued. "You would do well to do the same. Your Heart is the problem. If you are willing, I will extract it for you."

"Shut up so I can whoop your sorry butt to the Unwish Islands and back," Danny snarled, forming ectoplasmic energy on his fists.

"Gladly," sneered Anti-Timothy, forming a pair of ectoplasmic blades from _his_ fists.

And they charged.

* * *

"Mom!"

Sam turned from Billy's crib, and was bowled over by her daughter, who'd phased through the wall and grabbed her round the waist in tightly, landing on her back.

"Danni!" Sam said. "What's the big deal? Where's your father?"

"Mom!" Sam could see that Danni's eyes were red, and her face stained from what looked like tears. "Some Ghost guy attacked me, and Dad's fighting him now! My Ghost Sense was so strong, I nearly froze in the sky."

"Who was he?" Sam asked, concerned for her husband.

"I don't know, but Dad seemed to know him."

Sam's heart skipped a beat. There weren't many Ghosts left that Danny knew anymore. They all started disappearing some years ago.

"And Dad told me to tell you something."

"What is it?" Sam tried to sound blankly curious, but inside she was storming with worry, confusion, and fear.

Then Danni dropped the bomb.

"They broke through. They're coming. That's what he told me to tell you. He said you'd — that you'd understand."

Sam froze. _But Von Strangle said that they'd positioned Fairy World defense forces around Earth cities that couldn't be diverted by any means unless…_

Sam went slack, and Danni and Billy looked at their mother confusedly, unaware of the horrible truth echoing in Sam's mind.

…_unless Fairy World itself suffered a full-force Unwish attack._

***

"So, you're our Fairy GodParents?" Tammy asked Wanda, sipping from the cup of tea Wanda had poofed up for all four present.

Wanda paused for a moment. Too long, she noted of herself, because her twin charges gave each other wary glances.

"Weeeeellll," Cosmo said before Wanda could answer the GodChildren, "Not exactly."

"What do you mean by 'Not exactly'?" Tammy asked.

Wanda temporarily glared at her husband — she loved him more than anything, but his timing sometimes bordered on disastrous — before fixing her GodChildren with a sad and intense look. (Cosmo, meanwhile, poofed a zipper up over his mouth.)

She could tell that this was not the best of introductions she'd ever had with GodChildren. She was hesitant to cut to the chase and tell these children the real reasons she was here. Not because she felt them unworthy of knowing, or because she didn't like them. She felt they had every right to know what was going on, and she loved them as though they were her own children.

No. She was hesitant to tell them, because their lives had been so uncomplicated before, and this was only going to change their otherwise simple, idyllic lifestyles.

Forever.

And her hesitance was being misread by her wards as dislike.

That just wouldn't do.

"Trust me," Wanda said, and she could tell her dark tone caught both twins off guard, "All I wish is that me & Cosmo could be your Fairy GodParents in less tumultuous times. And if the only problem was your travesty of a babysitter…" Wanda cast a dark glance at the deactivated hulk of the V-800. "…I would be happy."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tommy asked, folding his arms and cocking an eyebrow.

Wanda sighed, setting her tea down.

"Things in Fairy World…aren't going so well, sport," she told her godson.

"What do you mean?" Tammy asked, concern cutting into her tone. Tommy's folded arms loosened up a little, and he too looked anxious.

"Fairy World is at war with a race of irate magical beings called the Unwished Wishes. Fairy World has done its best to keep the war off of Earth, but…"

"But they broke through?"

"Unfortunately. Every Fairy that received a degree in GodParenting has been dispatched to Earth to protect the humans."

"But how'd they get to Earth?" Tammy asked. "I just learned about Fairy World ten minutes ago, but you'd think Fairy World would do their best to make sure this didn't happen."

"Well," Wanda said, "I don't know everything, but I'll take a crack at what I_ think_ happened. Jorgen Von Strangle — the toughest Fairy in the universe, and the Head of State in Fairy World — must've stationed all of Fairy World's defense forces around Earth, to protect you from the Unwished Wishes."

"But doesn't that leave Fairy World less protected?" Tommy put in.

Wanda stared at Tommy in shock for several seconds, stunned by this insight by Tim's son.

"What did I say?" Tommy Turner asked.

"You kids these days _are_ getting smarter," Wanda noted aloud. "Your father wouldn't have noticed that."

"You knew our dad?" Tammy asked.

_POOF!_

The zipper on Cosmo's mouth was off.

"_Knew_ him?" he spouted with a smile. "We were his GodParents. Now when I say, 'we', I mean me & Wanda, 'cause you kids obviously couldn't be your father's Fairy GodParents!" Cosmo's face fell suddenly. "…Could you?"

"No, they couldn't, sweetie," Wanda said, before facing the twins again.

"You guys were Dad's Fairy GodParents when he was a kid?" Tommy asked, smiling.

"We were indeed," Wanda continued, smiling in spite of the dire situation; these little moments were what made GodParenting worth it. "Normally, a GodChild is assigned a Fairy GodParent or GodParents when he or she is truly in need of help."

"And boy," Cosmo added, "Did your dad ever need our help!"

"Why?" Tammy asked.

"Bad babysitter," Wanda replied simply. "Vicky Victorson."

Tommy and Tammy screamed their little lungs out.

"What did _I_ say?" Wanda asked.

"Icky Vicky, the Demon Babysitter of Rainy Circle, was _real_?!" they cried in unison.

"To the misfortune of many children," Wanda said darkly. "And as much as I love talking about old times with you two, we need to get back to the present problem."

"Where were we, anyway?"

Cosmo raised his hand eagerly, "Oooh! Oooh! I know! I know!"

Wanda gave Cosmo a weird look; he did? "You do?"

"Sure!" he smiled. "Waaaaatch this!"

He pressed a finger into Wanda's temple, and Tommy's at the same time.

_**---**_

Tammy watched as Cosmo rewound her twin brother and her Fairy GodMother. It was beyond bizarre to hear something she'd only heard in old archive footage — video cassette players rewinding cassette tapes — coming from her brother and GodMother's mouthes, moving too fast for them to have imitated those movements in normal situations.

Cosmo pulled his fingers away.

"…—must've stationed all of Fairy World's defense forces around Earth, to protect you from the Unwished Wishes," Wanda repeated, in the exact tone and inflection as before.

"But doesn't that leave Fairy World less protected?" As did Tommy.

They froze.

_Whoa_, Tommy faced his sister. _Serious déjà vu._

"Back on track!" Cosmo said cheerfully.

"Putting aside that awkward and…slightly uncomfortable experience," Wanda said, giving Cosmo a sharp look, clearly indicating that he not repeat this, "It did indeed leave Fairy World unprotected. It would have been an altogether unwise move. But that's where our new allies, the Anti-Fairies and Pixies, came in."

"Anti-Fairies?" Tommy asked.

"Pixies?" Tammy echoed.

Wanda poofed up more tea and cookies for the quartet.

"They used to be enemies of Fairy World, and even sided with Unwished Wishes before. Then the Leader of the Unwished Wishes made his intentions clear, and his goals didn't match up with the Anti-Fairies _or _the Pixies."

"But what _are_ they?"

"Do you want the short story or the long story?" Wanda asked.

"Just remember: the long story's in Aramaic!" Cosmo said smilingly.

Those present couldn't help but chuckle at that random remark.

"The short version," Tammy said. "I'm sure it's all we have time for."

"Very acute thinking, sweetie," Wanda said, beaming as she sipped some tea. "Well, the Pixies are very business-like magical creatures. They treat magic like a business; mountains of paperwork and red tape just to get one wish through when they were in charge. And very tedious to listen to, too, I should add. One good thing, is that they can get through as much paperwork as you could possibly throw at them and more.

"As for Anti-Fairies, they're like the yin to us Fairy's yang. The Quizzlers to the Fairy Blackbirds. The dark to our light. Basically, they're everything that Fairies aren't. Like the Anti-Fairy of Cosmo — Anti-Cosmo — is cultured, suave, and…well, how do I say this nicely?…smart. _Very_ smart."

"Yep!" Cosmo banged on his head. Echo. "Nuttin' in my noggin!"

"Of course, they always liked causing trouble, especially on Friday the 13th. I guess most defected to our side when they found out one of their own was very willing to outdo them all."

"The Unwish leader was an _Anti-Fairy_?" Tommy and Tammy asked.

"Yes."

"Who was his Fairy counterpart?" Tammy asked.

Wanda was ready for this, and she'd already worked out her answer before meeting the twins. But withholding this information was still painful for her.

"That's a long story, which myself & Cosmo are intricately tied in," she said. "And unfortunately, we don't have time to explain.

"But at any rate, even with the Anti-Fairies _and_ Pixies on our side, the Unwish armies that attacked Fairy World just last week were greater than we estimated. They broke through the defenses. They showed no mercy to any non-Unwished Wish that they saw." Her voice broke, and Tommy and Tammy saw tears burning in Wanda's eyes. "Soldier. Civilian. It didn't matter to them."

Wanda sniffled, and wiped away her tears. "Sorry. I'm just horrified at how vicious the Unwished Wishes can be even now.

"Anyway, the strike was so horrific, that the Fairy squadrons set up around Earth were recalled in a bid to drive the Unwished Wishes out of Fairy World. And they did. Back to Earth."

"Wait. '_Back_ to Earth'?" Tammy asked. "They were here before?"

"They were," Wanda said shortly, "On the Unwish Island, formerly the dreaded Isla de Muerta. Jorgen used it to store all of your father's Unwished Wishes. You see, he made so many Wishes — and Unwished them — that they needed an island to store them all. Two, in the end: the Wished-and-Unwished country of Tibecuador became the second Unwish Island. For most GodChildren, a magically reinforced locker made from Jorgenium in Fairy World's Unwish Containment Center.

"Eventually, Jorgen sunk the Unwish Islands, thinking he was nipping that problem in the bud. It didn't work; just weeks later, the Unwished Wishes attacked Fairy World for the first time."

"How?" was the twins' query.

"Remember how I said the Leader of the Unwished Wishes was an Anti-Fairy?"

Nod. Nod.

"He levitated the islands back out of the ocean, and into outer space. He literally struck the Unwish Containment Center with the Isla de Muerta. The first Unwish Island was shattered in the process, but the damage was done; all the Unwished Wishes were freed, and brought to the Unwished Wishes's current headquarters on the now-spaceborne Tibecuador.

"And so the War of Unwish Aggression — as Jorgen rather aptly named it — began."

"…But how can they _breathe_ in outer space?" Tammy asked; it just didn't make sense! How could the leader of such a terroristic organization be so…so…reckless?!

"Fairies and our kind don't need to," Wanda replied; "We're magic. The Unwished Wishes, if nothing else, are magic given form and mind. _They_ don't need to breathe, either."

"Oh," Tammy said. _That_ made sense.

Then Wanda leaned forward until her GodChildren were less than a feet from her face. The twins were slightly put off; her demeanor had darkened suddenly.

"Do you know about those sort of bad guys on your favorite cartoon shows?"

"Yeah!" Tommy said excitedly. _These guys are like the Hand clan from_ Adolescent Genetically Altered Karate Cows: The Next Generation_?_

"Well, the Unwish aren't like those guys, I'm afraid," Wanda said lowly, her expression showing regret and hurt. And fear.

Tommy's face fell.

_Clearly not, Tommy_, Tammy said.

"They won't pull any punches just because you two are kids," Wanda intoned darkly. It was a harsh truth, but they had to know. "They. Will. _Kill_ you if they get the chance. Don't let them have that chance…"

Wanda embraced her GodChildren, who returned the gesture.

"…because I won't," Wanda sobbed into their shoulders.

_So they're more like Symptom and his posse from_ The Unstoppables_?_ Tommy thought.

_I'll pretend I didn't hear that, Tommy_, Tammy hissed to her brother.

Composing herself, Wanda floated back beside her husband. He kissed her on the cheek, and she smiled, her cheeks tinted pink.

Then she faced her wards with a serious expression.

"In any case, the Unwished Wishes are on their way here, since you two are high on their Most Wanted List, so…" Wanda & Cosmo raised their wands, which glowed a golden light.

_POOF!_

Tommy and Tammy gasped. The shattered picture frames were fixed and back on the walls, the V-800 shoved into a corner where it was nicely inconspicuous, and outside the window…

Tommy rubbed his eyes and gasped.

Tammy cleaned her glasses and gasped.

There was all manner of wand-shaped pieces of artillery set up outside the Turner household. Barbed-wire fence crackling with magic lightning. Signs set up saying things like "Stay out, Unwish!", "This means you!", and "Cheese!" (clearly poofed up by Cosmo). The works.

The Fairy GodParents surely were going to extreme lengths to protect their wards, the children of their past ward.

"…get ready for battle!" Wanda said sharply, poofing up what looked like submachine guns, but pink and with a wand instead of a gun barrel. Tommy and Tammy picked up one each.

_Scared, Tommy?_ Tammy asked.

_Pantsless_, Tommy replied—and it was true. _I didn't even know Fairies_ existed _two hours ago, and now I find myself dropped into a war for the lives of Fairies! It's really freaky!_

_Well_, Tammy said, _When it rains, it pours, I guess._

_And what the heck did we do to deserve being on the Unwish's Most Wanted List?!_ Tommy asked.

_I have no idea_, Tammy said. _But file it away with 'Unwish Wish Leader's Identity'. We'll ask Cosmo & Wanda later._

_If there_ is _a later_, Tommy said, cocking the Fairy submachine gun and gaining a dark expression.

_That's the spirit, bro_, Tammy echoed her brother bleakly.

* * *

Tim was just three blocks away from work when it hit him.

It crashed into the hood of his car, violently caving it in and nearly flipping the car end over end, and causing the air bag to deploy right in Tim's face.

Tim began counting his lucky stars that whatever it was hit where it did; he was pushing 40 MPH.

Looking past the air bag as it deflated, he saw what it was that impacted his car.

It was Dan. In Ghost form.

Tim sincerely hoped he was already in Ghost form when…whatever it was threw him into his hood.

"Dan?" Tim ventured.

"Can't talk now, Tim!" Danny called back as he flew back out. "Mind if I borrow your car?"

Tim clambered out, making sure he had his driver's license and keys as he got out. "Sure. I needed an excuse to get a new one, anyway. Who's the bad guy?"

"An old enemy," Danny muttered as he picked up Tim's car and hurled it into the sky. Tim saw a dark shape shooting towards them briefly before the car impacted, exploding and sending shards of metal and glass raining down; all civilians protected by a large ectoplasmic shield the Phantom generated.

"What old ene—…ugh!" Tim couldn't breathe; someone had grabbed him by the throat from behind.

"Tim!" Dan shouted. "Let him go!"

"Come and get him, Fenton," said a chilling voice from behind Tim that made his blood freeze and his heart plummet.

Tim turned to look.

A black robe. A pair of blue-feathered wings. Flaming green cat-eyes under the hood.

His captor.

Tim was more afraid than he'd ever been in his life. He didn't know what this…thing…was going to do to him.

But he hid his fear, and spoke.

"Do I know you?" Tim asked sharply.

"More than you know…" was the baffling reply. The Grim Reaper set him down on top of a tenement. "…yet. You should remember in a few moments, when the Memory Revision Department restores your lost memories."

"What are you—…?"

Doors locked in Tim's mind that he'd forgotten were there were suddenly unlocked and slammed open, and memories came flooding back to him.

Memories of wands.

And wings.

And floaty crowny things.

Memories of wishes.

And friends.

And enemies.

The enemy that stood before him.

_His_ old enemy.

Anti-Timothy.

"You," Tim growled, clenching his fist.

"Yes, me," said Tim's doppelganger, lowering his hood. His wild hair spilled behind his back, his fangs glistening in the morning sun, his skin a pale, sickly green.

"You look terrible."

"Good to see you, too, old 'friend'."

"You're back to bring your own brand of lovelessness to this planet, aren't you?" Tim's nails drew blood, but he didn't care. He just hated this monster — that he created — _so much_.

Anti-Timothy tilted his head. "You make that sound like a bad thing, you know. Have you ever tried a life without love?"

"I want so bad to spit in your face right now," Tim said truthfully.

"Spit away, Turner. It will do you no good."

And with that, Anti-Timothy spun quickly around, bringing up a cobalt Ghost Blade, parrying a similar weapon from Dan. Firing a small Ghost Ray from a ghostly fingertip, Tim's superheroic next-door neighbor was paralyzed.

"Mind your manners, Fenton," said Tim's Unwished Anti-Fairy counterpart, standing over the world's savior. "You mustn't barge into a civilized conversation," he continued with a sadistic grin, before kicking Dan over the edge.

"NO!" Tim found himself shouting.

Anti-Timothy faced his human counterpart, dropping his façade and giving a scowl that told Tim all he needed to know was coming for him.

"If you're so concerned for his well-being, Turner…" Tim felt an invisible fist grab him. "…Then why don't you just FOLLOW him?!" The fist threw him over the edge.

He never made it past it.

Dan, having recovered from the stunning faster than Tim could have thought possible, flew up like a bullet and caught Tim before he even fell a millimeter.

Blinking, Tim couldn't help but smile, "Nice catch, pal."

"All in a day's work," Dan smirked back. Then looked a little confused. "…Wow. I've been watching _way_ too many superhero movies."

"Nice catch, Fenton," said Anti-Timothy, catching the attention of the neighbors. The lord of nothingness had reverted to his Anti-Fairy form. His hair was just as wild as it was in Ghost form, now a dark-blue; his blood-red eyes, with those white irises; and his skin had returned to its cobalt-blue, Anti-Fairy tone. "But remember…you'll never be able to save…everyone…"

With a whooshing noise, Anti-Timothy was engulfed in sheer darkness and pale nothing, and when it cleared, he was gone.

Danny paused, as if preparing to set Tim down in front of his place of work, but Tim knew that he would never be able to focus on anything today after the revelations he had endured.

His restored memories were still settling in his mind, and fragments of a forgotten childhood drifted lazily in his brain, trying to locate their proper place in the chronology of his life.

Danny seemed to catch on to this, because with a nod, he continued on down the street.

"Where to, Tim, if you're gonna skip on work today?"

The answer was obvious.

"Molly's Hot Topic," he said. "Molly has a car. She has to have had her memories restored as well."

"Where is it?"

"17th and Fullerby."

"Gotcha."

_Ring-ring-ring!_

"My cell phone." He knew who it was.

"Molly?"

"_Timmy?"_

"You'll never believe what just happened!"

"_You'll never believe what just happened!"_

He said it at the same time as she did. After an awkward silence, he continued.

"Molly, do you remember the Wishing Well, where we first met?"

"…You remember, too?"

"Not just that; Anti-Timothy's back on Earth. He attacked me, but I'm alright. He's out for us, and the kids. I know it. Danny's flying me to where you are."

"_What happened to_ your _car?"_

"Ehh," Tim nervously smiled at Dan before continuing, "Are we insured for damages and total decimation brought on by a rampant Ghost-slash-Unwish attack?"

He heard her dark chuckle from the other end. He had lightened the mood a little for her, and she had responded in kind.

And he felt a powerful rush of affection for her.

"_I signed out early. Marcie's in charge until I get back…_if_ I get back."_ Her voice broke, and his heart did too at the sound of it. _"I hope the kids are okay. God, I hope nothing happens to them."_

"Well, judging from my choice of babysitter, I think I can rightfully assume Cosmo & Wanda made a return to the Turner household. And if I remember Fairy magic right — and I do — things are gonna heat up pretty quick there."

"_Either way, I'm on my way home as soon as I can."_

"Just wait for me, Molly. They're my kids, too."

She clearly smirked on the other end. _"Only as long as you have custody over them."_

"Hey! I could always say that _you_ were the one that hired the V-800's to babysit 'em."

"_Heheh. Only if you can find the paperwork."_

"Paperwork? I hired them over the phone."

"_Well, you can stop bantering now. I can see you."_

"So can I." She was standing outside of the punk store she managed, waving to Tim. "Well, I guess we can stop wasting minutes, and hang up."

"_Whatever you say, honey."_

"Right. Love you."

"_Right back at ya." Click! Beep-beep-beep…_

Dan set Tim down next to his wife. "You two don't mind if I give you a lift? Might get you home faster? Besides…" He clenched his fists, which glowed green. "…the Unwished Wishes are threatening _my_ house, too, and I'm not about to let more of my family die because of the likes of those monsters."

Tim raised an eyebrow. "You know about Fairy World?"

"I have for years," Dan said. "Long story. But we got business at home. Hop in!"

Tim wasted no time, and buckled into the passenger's seat, Molly buckling into the driver's seat and closing the doors. Dan slipped down under the car, intangible, and lifted it into the air as if it were paper. Wasting no time, he launched in a beeline for the house.

Tim, his wife, and his hero friend were all driven by the same instinct, the same drive, the same desire.

Love.

Tim loved his children more than he could ever imagine loving anyone. They were the gems that lit his day up when everything was wrong. They — and the woman sitting beside him — were what drove him to get into that now-scrapped car and put food on the table. Without those treasures, he was quite sure his life would be forfeit.

He could not imagine life with even one of them missing.

He would not let anything put the lives of his children in peril.

He _would _get home.

He _would_ protect them. No matter the cost.

He turned to Molly.

"By the way," he smirked, "for the record, _you _started the bantering."

* * *

(**NOTE:** Well, _this_ is an unusual situation. After seeing the character Molly in the episode _Wishing Well_, my decision to cast Trixie as the future Mrs. Turner of FOPN was shaken to the core. And after I _finished_ HEA at that! This was particularly frustrating for me, because I know I'm going to alienate large groups of my fanbase for this sharp change of plans so late in the game. It's just… looking back, there were a few decisions in the original HEA that ring a little off to me now. Tad and Chad being good chums of Timmy & Trixie in the end is one of the first that comes to mind, as is the fact that they were murdered by Lord Xythimot (now Leader Anti-Timothy in Definitive HEA). Also, Binky being killed off in the Shinwux's most recent attack on Fairy World made me feel like a jerk since he is such a well-liked character. So, I removed the reference to the death, leaving his reappearance open.

To the people who have read this before, yes, I did lift a lot of passages out of the original without much change. However, keep in mind that what I kept in is what will be relevant to FOPN when I start work on that after this semester ends. Everything that was cut out, it will still be available for reading as the original HEA, because I don't believe I will ever take down a fanfiction I post on this site. To be fair, though, there will be a lot of stuff that will be brought up in flashback in FOPN, which will be relevant, like Veronica Star just minutes before Vanessa was even conceived. Once FOPN is done, I will be willing to answer any questions I may have left unanswered, accidentally or otherwise.

God, it feels good to be back!

**Coming Soon: **_**The Fairly OddParents Next**_!

The War for Earth ensues, with the humans and the Fairies, Anti-Fairies and Pixies on one side, and the Unwished Wishes on the other!

But as the War unfolds, new enemies from beyond the stars bring their own problems on our heroes' heads!

Drama!

Humor!

Romance!

Suspense!

Poof!

Adam West as President!

All of this and more can be seen in…

_The Fairly OddParents Next_!

For real this time!)


End file.
